Man moves into a $340,000 home in Flower Mound — for $15

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Tom Fox/Staff Photographer

Kenneth T. Robinson is living in a Flower Mound home he doesn't own and isn't renting. He paid a $15 filing fee that allowed him to occupy a $340,000 abandoned house using the law of "adverse possession."

FLOWER MOUND — Kenneth T. Robinson moved into a $340,000 home in Waterford Park Estates on June 17. The two-story, 3,250-square-foot house was built in 1997 and features a swimming pool, stainless-steel appliances and granite countertops.

Robinson didn’t pay cash or saddle himself with a mortgage. He simply determined that the owner had moved out about a year ago and cannot be found. The property wasn’t listed for sale.

As crazy as it sounds, Robinson boldly took possession of the house by using a little-known Texas law called “adverse possession,” commonly known as squatter’s rights.

“You miss 100 percent of the shots you don’t take,” said Robinson, 50, who sells vitamins and dietary supplements for a multilevel marketing company. “I’ve just got to see how it plays out.”

William T. Ferguson, the house’s owner of record, could not be reached for comment. Accredited Home Lenders Inc. of San Diego, his mortgage lender, filed for bankruptcy in 2009. Officials there did not return phone calls.

“Unless they wake up and assert their rights to ownership, this man [Robinson] may have found a real business opportunity,” said Brian Rider, an Austin real estate lawyer and adjunct professor at the University of Texas law school.

Skeptical neighbors watched as Robinson slowly began to move his belongings into the house — a pool table in the dining room, a washer and dryer, a bed, office equipment in the living room — and turn on the utilities.

Drop-jawed, they learned that he asserted his claim by simply going to the Denton County Courthouse and paying a $15 fee to file an affidavit of adverse possession.

The document declares his intent to “openly and notoriously” establish his ownership by living in the house, paying taxes and paying annual dues of $300 to the homeowner’s association.

With that affidavit in hand, he called a locksmith to meet him at the two-story house, change the locks and hand him the keys.

Sandy Dawson, who lives across the street, said Robinson is a pariah who “kind of keeps to himself.”

“We believe in working for what you get,” she said. “What he’s doing is unbelievable.”

Neighbors called Flower Mound police to investigate the situation. Robinson said he showed officers the affidavit and explained the laws of adverse possession. They left without taking action against him.

Capt. Wess Griffin, a police department spokesman, said officers tried in vain to find an owner or a mortgage company that might complain about Robinson.

“We couldn’t find anyone,” Griffin said. “No foreclosure, nothing. It appears to us to be largely a civil matter.”

But some neighbors were undeterred, and a delegation of four men went to Robinson’s house for a visit.

Robinson, recounting the conversation, said one of the men stepped forward and told him, “We don’t think you need to be here. You’ll never be our neighbor.”

Fearing the talk might turn violent, Robinson called the police. They arrived and asked the neighborhood delegation to disperse, Robinson said.

“I didn’t file charges against them,” he said.

Griffin said he understands the neighbors’ frustration. They paid a lot of money for their homes, and Robinson paid only a $15 fee to file his affidavit.

“The flip side is that the neighbors might be glad that the house is not sitting there vacant and someone who says he’s going to make improvements is living there,” Griffin said.

Among those improvements, Robinson said, would be getting the pool up and running again and reviving a sad-looking yard.

Who does this?

Real estate is immersed in a technical world of contracts, deeds, titles and written documents. What kind of person decides, in effect, to wipe away almost 15 years of legal history on a house and try to start anew?

During a lengthy interview with The Dallas Morning News last week, Robinson painted himself as a multifaceted man with many skills, talents and entrepreneurial instincts: an ex-Marine who once guarded military dignitaries, a lay minister, a motivational speaker, a former Realtor and commercial artist.

A detailed drawing of a turtle’s head adorned a sketchpad sitting on a wooden easel in the den.

“Art is my natural talent,” he said. “I was once a layout and design artist for product packaging.”

Dressed in creased jeans and a black, long-sleeve shirt, Robinson described himself as a divorced father of six children ranging in age from 16 to 30.

His head is shaved, and his eyebrows and goatee are flecked with gray. Photographs of twin grandsons sit on a shelf in the den.

His history, as he tells it, begins in Memphis, Tenn. He played high school football and joined the Marines after graduation. After his military service, he flirted with playing pro football. But he had started a family and needed to make a living.

Robinson said he came to the Dallas area to work for Vitamark International, a multilevel marketing company that promises big profits to entrepreneurs who attract others to sell the vitamins and homeopathic health care products.

“Network marketing provides a source of income for me at this time,” he said. “People think I’m in dire straits or something, like a bum off the street. But that isn’t true.”

Like many entrepreneurs who take risks to create opportunity, Robinson peppers his conversation with sayings favored by salesmen who have to keep motivated for the next call.

“It always starts with the man in the mirror,” he said.

And the man in Robinson’s mirror is exploring the idea of conducting seminars for people interested in using adverse possession to acquire property.

Home, sweet home?

During the interview, Robinson told the story of how he found the abandoned home on Waterford Drive while living with roommates in another Flower Mound house.

He said he drove by the neighborhood and saw a house with unmowed, dying grass and other symptoms of vacancy and neglect.

A new owner, he surmised, would need at least $500 to repair the pool equipment and get the stagnant water circulating again. And it looked as if the roof had been damaged by a recent hailstorm that swept through the neighborhood.

It was the kind of home, he thought, that might be a good deal for a buyer driving a hard bargain in a depressed residential real estate market. So, he tried to find an owner or mortgage holder, but was unsuccessful.

With no owner to call, he began Internet research on other options and came across the phrase “adverse possession.”

“I read the Texas statutes and the case law,” he said. “The only avenue that seemed left open to me was adverse possession.”

The statutes on adverse possession are complicated.

Legal experts say Robinson could become the house’s legal owner in as little as three years if somehow he can figure out how to establish a new chain of title that, in effect, erases the legal history.

His success also depends on the old owner or the legitimate mortgage holder failing to come forward with proof of ownership.

Other legal provisions give the owner and mortgage holder five years, 10 years or 25 years to reassert their ownership rights. Those statutes of limitation all could come into play depending on whether Robinson does things such as pay taxes and stays in the house year after year.

Brian Rider, the Austin real estate attorney, said the Robinson case is unique.

“I don’t think it’s widespread, but who knows?” he said. “This guy has gotten a lot of publicity. The squatter has to be open and visible but doesn’t want to advertise this thing, because that would make it more likely that a valid claimant will step forward to challenge him.”

Neighbors have speculated about Robinson being a hired hand of a mastermind who is using an arcane real estate law to acquire property throughout the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

But he insists he is on his own and has never previously used adverse possession.

“It will be my home if all goes well,” he said. “But this is not a fight. It’s a legal process. This is too nice a house for someone not to come forward with a claim on it.

“If they do, I’ll make an offer. If the offer doesn’t mesh with what they agree to accept, I might have to leave.

“If I have to go, it won’t be a big thing.”

A primer on adverse possession

How a squatter acquires property

1. He finds a desirable abandoned property.

2. He goes to the courthouse to file a claim called an affidavit of adverse possession.

3. To maintain possession, he must make it visible to others that he is openly asserting a claim on the property.

4. He must cultivate, use and enjoy the property on a continuous, uninterrupted basis.

5. To shorten the period under which he gains legal ownership, the squatter should pay property taxes and find a way to acquire a “duly registered deed.”

Rights of the owner or mortgage lender

The owner of record or his mortgage company must challenge the squatter’s claim to the property.

Possible remedies include filing a trespass complaint, eviction notice, mortgage foreclosure or asking a state district court judge to declare final ownership rights.

Texas statutes outline how long an owner or mortgage lender have to challenge a squatter's claim.

Depending on circumstances and facts in the case, the statute of limitations for owners/lenders to assert their claim could be as short as three years for a squatter who can produce a deed to show ownership or as long as 25 years for a squatter who neither produces a deed nor pays taxes.

Statutes also list provisions under which a squatter can gain possession after five or 10 years unless challenged by an owner or mortgage lender.

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